Hello, I'm new to antkeeping and this is my first ant colony (messor barbarus). I kept them in a test tube setup and I recently moved the ants to a container with soil and a water source (through cotton). The ants immediately dug a hole with a large chamber where they keep the queen and the brood along with some poppy seeds. Recently they covered the only entrance to their nest and are digging further down (taking the soil to the covered entrance). the entrance is now about 1 inch from the surface and I'm afraid the ants will dehydrate without access to the sugarwater cotton ball. sugestions?

Hello, I'm new to antkeeping and this is my first ant colony (messor barbarus). I kept them in a test tube setup and I recently moved the ants to a container with soil and a water source (through cotton). The ants immediately dug a hole with a large chamber where they keep the queen and the brood along with some poppy seeds. Recently they covered the only entrance to their nest and are digging further down (taking the soil to the covered entrance). the entrance is now about 1 inch from the surface and I'm afraid the ants will dehydrate without access to the sugarwater cotton ball. sugestions?

If you water the soil the ants can drink from there.
They are probably blocking off the entrance because there's too much airflow (which ants don't like) Don't be alarmed if they don't appear to be foraging because this is also very common. It seemed like my Tetramorium colony hadn't ate for weeks and they managed to pull through. Ants have a cool way of dealing with all this.. they're proabably all digging tunnels and expanding chambers. If you're still worried, feel free to leave a test tube with fresh water at all times so they have another way to drink.

Hello, I'm new to antkeeping and this is my first ant colony (messor barbarus). I kept them in a test tube setup and I recently moved the ants to a container with soil and a water source (through cotton). The ants immediately dug a hole with a large chamber where they keep the queen and the brood along with some poppy seeds. Recently they covered the only entrance to their nest and are digging further down (taking the soil to the covered entrance). the entrance is now about 1 inch from the surface and I'm afraid the ants will dehydrate without access to the sugarwater cotton ball. sugestions?

If you water the soil the ants can drink from there.
They are probably blocking off the entrance because there's too much airflow (which ants don't like) Don't be alarmed if they don't appear to be foraging because this is also very common. It seemed like my Tetramorium colony hadn't ate for weeks and they managed to pull through. Ants have a cool way of dealing with all this.. they're proabably all digging tunnels and expanding chambers. If you're still worried, feel free to leave a test tube with fresh water at all times so they have another way to drink.

Thanks for the quick reply, The recipient where I have the ants is covered (tiny holes covered with fabric for safe respiration), I don't know where the airflow might be coming from....